This is the growing list of study terms for World history, from 1648 (the same midpoint used by the CLEP exams) to the present. This list will also include history in the century or so prior to 1648 which is not included in World History Study Guide to 1648.
As of Nov. 17 this list has about 140 terms, and it should grow to about 400 terms by early December. An examination on this material will be given in late December 2011 or early January 2012.
Regular/non-honors study terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Age of Exploration | A time period where nation-states in Europe (mainly England France Portugal and Spain) embarked on expeditions to far lands. The American continents were found during this period. |
| Balance of power | the concept, first established by Europeon nations after the final defeat of Napoleon, whereby alliances called the Concert of Europe required nations to assist each other in order to defeat any one nation that became too power and started invading others. |
| Bastille Day | The day when French peasants invaded the huge Bastille prison in Paris, freeing the inmates. July 14, 1789 and started the Great Fear when riots broke out ever day, with peasants burning wealthy homes. |
| Caravel | A miniature, highly maneuverable, light weight ship developed by the Portuguese. Often used to carry cargo. |
| Charles Darwin | (1809-1882)English naturalist who established the idea that all species had evolved into complex forms of life over millions of years through the process of "natural selection." Charles Darwin came up with the absurd theory of evolution. |
| Charles Dickens | (1812-1870) Greatest English novelist of the Victorian period. Author of many iconic novels and characters which we admire to this day. |
| Georges Jacques Danton | (26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) Famous Jacobin, joined and fully supported revolution but when he saw the reign of terror, Danton took a moderate stance. Danton was subsequently executed. |
| Christopher Columbus | (1451-1506)Italian explorer who sailed across the Atlantic ocean in search for a trade route to India, but landed on the "New World" instead. |
| Congress of Vienna | A meeting between European nations after Napoleon to discuss the balance of power. |
| David Ricardo | (1772-1823) British political economist who wanted to support more trade between nations; known as one of the most influential classical economists. |
| David Livingstone | Scotsman who explored central Africa in the late 1860s to find the source of the Nile. |
| England | An imperialistic nation-state based out of the British isles off the coast of Europe. England was also the largest non-contiguous empire in history. |
| Emilio Aguinaldo | Led a rebellion against the U.S. to establish freedom in the Philippines in 1899. |
| Emiliano Zapata | Cowboy who helped lead the Mexican Revolution. |
| Forbidden City | Imperial palace located in Beijing, China. Used for twenty-four emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. |
| Glorious Revolution | Revolution that took place in England in the year 1688. Replaced King James II of England with a Anglican King and Queen, William and Mary. |
| Imperialism | The practice of one nation controlling another nation, territory, or a group of people. |
| Impressionism | Type of painting that didn't focus on the detail but on the feeling and impressions. |
| Isaac Newton | (1643-1727) Man who discovered and explained the invisible force of gravity. |
| The Enlightenment | Characterized by rationalist philosophers challenging assumed beliefs up till the enlightenment. Possibly caused by the Scientific Revolution's ability to explain the universe. Highlights include Voltaire, Hume, Descartes, Kant, Smith, Burke, Jefferson, Locke, and Diderot. |
| James Stuart | Cousin of Queen Elizabeth who took over the English throne as James I. Under his reign, the "Gunpowder Plot" was invented, and the King James Version of the Bible was published. Contrary to his cousin Elizabeth, James I fought with Parliament continually. |
| John Locke | (1632-1704) Famous English enlightenment philosopher. Created idea of Government's Social Contract. Created idea of "Social Contract" that prompted protestant rebellion in England and American Revolution. |
| Louisiana Purchase | Tract of land that Napoleon sold to America for a very low price in 1803. Was the transfer of the western half of the Mississippi Valley from Spain and France to the United States. |
| Voltaire | (1694-1778) Famous French Enlightenment philosopher. Voltaire taught of absolute freedom, but resulting revolution devolved into mindless bloodshed. Nevertheless Voltaire was the leader of the enlightenment and greatest figure in the Enlightenment. |
| nation-state | a single country comprised of people unified in language and culture, such as England in the 1600s and other European nations later. |
| Marie Antoinette | Wife of Louis XVI. Was reported to have said, "Let them eat cake!" upon hearing of the shortage of bread. |
| Monarch | A person who reigns over a kingdom or empire. He may be above the law (absolute monarch) or subject to it (constitutional monarchy). The position is generally inherited (notable exception: the Pope.) |
| Muhammad Ali Pasha | (1769-1849) Albanian commander in the Ottomon army; regarded as the founder of modern Egypt. |
| Opium | Drug that the British sent in large amounts to China. Was one of the causes of the great Taiping Rebellion. |
| Capitalism | An economic system that private companies own all capital goods and sell them at a competitive price. This system is almost always successful until excessive government prevails. |
| Columbian Exchange | The trade of plants and animals from America to Europe; Europe to America. This was put into action some time after Columbus discovered America in 1492. |
| Nicolaus Copernicus | (1473-1543) A Polish scientist who was the first to discover the concept of the earth revolving around the sun. |
| Cortes | Led the conquest of Mexico in 1519 and conquered the Aztec empire. |
| Czar (Tsar) | Absolute emperor of Russia since the 1500's, the first being Ivan IV "The Terrible." |
| Neo-Confucianism | More of a philosophy than a religion, Neo-Confucianism is a combination of Confucianism and Buddhism, and was the primary practice of the Chinese nation in the 1600's. |
| Reign of Terror | Started after the execution of Louis XVI when Maximilian Robespierre guillotined numerous alleged enemies, including Marie Antoinette, and ended with his death (1794); a time of terrifying chaos when anyone could be killed for no reason |
| Robert Fulton | American engineer and inventor who created the first commerical steamboat service in 1807. |
| Napoleon | (lived 1769-1821) Dictator of France after the French Revolution; signed peace treaties with major European enemies, created a successful system of laws known as the Napoleonic Code, and conquered much of continental Europe; defeated at Battle of Waterloo |
| Battle of Waterloo | 1815 Marked the end of Napoleon's reign in France when he was defeated by Prussia and Great Britain |
| Bernhard Riemann | (1826-1866) an influential German mathematician who made lasting contributions to differential geometry and analysis, some of which provided a foundation 40 years later for the theory of general relativity in physics. |
| Congress of Vienna | 1815 Convention of European nations proposing a balance of powers among the rival nations to ensure than no single nation could threaten the others |
| Concert of Europe | Established during the Congress of Vienna; alliances between the nations requiring assistance of each other if war broke out, protecting against any revolutions or invasion; adopted changes including the legitimacy of monarchies and growing nationalism in Europe |
| Constitution of the United States | (1787) The oldest working constitution in the world, it established a masterful design for government. |
| Cotton | Cotton is a natural fiber used in clothing. It comes from the seed of the cotton plant. People have grown cotton since 3000 B.C. and traded it for other goods. |
| David Hume | (1711-1776) A Scottish philosopher and historian who promoted materialism and naturalism rather than spirituality. He was a “skeptic” (non-believer) towards religion, and wrote "A Treatise on Human Nature." Hume believed in relativism rather than absolute truth. |
| Declaration of Independence | (1776) Established the right of the people break their "social contract" with a ruler (a king) when he violates natural rights, such as the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. |
| Edmund Burke | (1729-1797) a conservative Irish statesman in the British parliament who sided with the American colonies in the period leading up to the American Revolution. He coined the phrase "salutary neglect" for the colonies, and his political assessments were often brilliant, as when he predicted a bad outcome for the French Revolution. |
| The Federalist Papers | (1788) Brilliant essays encouraging ratification of the U.S. Constitution, written mostly by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison |
| Immanuel Kant | (1724-1804) A leading German philosopher, Kant felt that behavior is moral only if it would work as a rule if everyone did it (e.g., littering would thus be immoral). Kant wrote “A Critique of Pure Reason” to criticize the use of pure reason to determine morality. |
| Industrial Revolution | technology-driven changes in society that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and a shift from farming to factories for many workers |
| James Clerk Maxwell | (1831-1879)British physicist. Maxwell is ranked as the foremost physical scientist of the 19th century. His greatest achievement was the synthesis of the contributions of Faraday, Gauss, and Ampère into a single coherent electromagnetic theory. Of his several academic appointments the most important was the post of professor of experimental physics at Cambridge. He made contributions of fundamental importance to many branches of physics. The maxwell, a unit of magnetic flux, was named in his honor. |
| Johann Sebastian Bach | 1685-1750 German composer famous for Fugues, Inventions, English Suites and Passion according to St. Matthew. |
| Louis Pasteur | 1822–95,French chemist and bacteriologist who founded microbiology invented pasteurization, and discovered vaccinations for anthrax, rabies, and chicken cholera. |
| Louis XVI | Louis XVI was the king of France from 1774 to October 1792. On August tenth during the French Revolution he was arrested. He was tried and found guilt of high treason. He was then executed by the guillotine on 21 January 1793. |
| Matthew Perry | Helped to break the isolation of Japan by sailing into Edo harbor and helped the Treaty of Kanagawa to be signed in 1854. |
| Slavery | the state or condition of being a slave; a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune |
| Realism | the doctrine that universals have a real objective existence |
| Steamboat | A steamboat is a waterborne ship powered by a steam engine. Historically, the steam was produced by burning coal (or less often, wood), although modern steamboats tend to use more portable fuels such as diesel gasoline. |
| Economies of scale | The decrease in a firm's long-run average costs as the size of its production increases. |
| Enclosure movement | Early 1700's during the industrial revolution in England.. Wealthy farmers bought land from small farmers, benefiting from economies of scale in farming huge tracts of land. |
| Adam Smith | Adam Smith (June 16, 1723 to July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. He came up with the idea of the "Invisable Hand." |
| Factors of production | Inputs used by companies to produce goods. Basic models of production have two input factors, labor and capital. |
| Oliver Cromwell | (1599-1658) Was an English soldier, statesman, and leader of the Puritan revolution. |
| Queen Elizabeth | Ruled from 1558-1603, and was known as the "Virgin Queen" and Virgnia was named in her honor. She also launched the most
cruel and bloody persecution that brought about great martyrs, such as St. Edmund Campion and St. Thomas Moore. |
| Victor Hugo | (1802-1885) Is considered one of the greatest Romanticist poets. He was a French man who wrote the classics Cromwell (1827), The Hunchback of Notre Dame of Paris (1831) and Les Miserables (1862). |
| William Prynne | (1600 – 24 October 1669) Was an english lawyer, author, political figure and prominent Puritan. |
| Maximilian Robespierre | 1758-1794 French Jacobin who was most responsible for reign of terror. Influenced by Rousseau and unbendingly murdered moderates or any opponents, died in 1794. |
| French Revolution | The French Revolution started in 1789 with the storm of the Bastille prison. The Revolution included the capture and beheading of King Louis XVI, and the Reign of Terror by Maximilien de Robespierre which ended in 1794 with Robespierre's death. |
| Prince Henry the Navigator | Prince Henry the Navigator (Dom Henrique) was the son of King João of Portugal, born in 1394. He is most famous for the voyages of discovery that he organised and financed, which eventually led to the rounding of Africa and the establishment of sea routes to the Indies. |
| Bartholomew Diaz | (circa1450 - May 29, 1500) Was a Portuguese navigator who discovered the route to India. |
| Ferdinand and Isabella | Ferdinand and Isabella were the king and queen of Spain in the late fifteenth century A.D. They were patrons of Christopher Columbus. After reconquering the small Moorish Kingdom of Granada, they established the Spanish Inquisition (1478) and expelled the Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492. |
| William and Mary | William III (1650-1702 A.D.) was the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1682 to 1702 A.D..They both founded the college of William and Mary in 1693. He ruled along with Queen Mary II (1662-1694 A.D.) until she died. William continued to rule until his death in 1702. |
| Reconquista | (722-1492 AD) Was the regaining by Christians of Spain and Portugal, which was under Muslim control. |
| Treaty of Tordesillas | 1494: established an 1100-mile long "Line of Demarcation," giving one side to Portugal and the other side to Spain for controlling the New World (Western Hemisphere) |
| Line of Demarcation | a north-to-south line giving Portugal trading rights in India, China, the East Indies, East Brazil and the Spanish Americas, and giving Spain control of the remaining, vast majority of the Americas. |
| Ferdinand Magellan | 1519-1522: led the first successful voyage to go around the world, going around the southern tip of South America. Magellan himself was killed by Philippine natives prior to completing the last leg of the journey. |
| Otto von Bismarck | (1815-1898) Was the minister president of Prussia (1862-71), and the first chancellor of the German Empire (1871-90). Known as the "Iron Chancellor". |
| Napoleon III | Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (20 April 1808 – 9 January 1873) was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. |
| First French Empire | (1804-1814/1815) Was the empire of Napoleon I of France, and was a dominant power of most of continental Europe during the early 19th century. |
| Second French Empire | Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic in France. |
| George Washington | George Washington (1732-1799) was the first President of the United States (1789-1797) and Commander In Chief of the Continental Army. He was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775-1797, leading the American victory over Britain in the American Revolution and was the unanimous choice to serve as President. He voluntarily stepped down from office in 1796. |
| United Kingdom | The term "United Kingdom" refers to the combination of "Great Britain" and "Northern Ireland" which is part of the island of Ireland. |
| Luddites | A social movement in England that rioted and protested against the changes of the Industrial Revolution. |
| [Ludwig Van Beethoven ]] | (1770-1827) revolutionized instrumental music and took it to new heights never thought possible. Beethoven became totally deaf at the age of forty. He wrote most of his best music while he was total deaf. |
| King Henry VIII | (lived 1491-1547, reigned beginning in 1509) Founded the Church of England (the Anglican Church) |
| Guillotine | The guillotine was invented by Dr. Joseph Guillotine. It has a heavy blade that is lifted up and then dropped onto the execution victim to severe their head. During the Reign of Terror, the guillotine was the main form of execution. |
| American Revolution | The American Revolution started when some American colonists thought that the English were taxing them too much. So, in 1776 they wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Patriots (the side of the revolutionaries) allied with France to equal the playing field. Through a series of battles that were wins and losses the Patriots came out on top and in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war. |
| American Revolution | A revolution against the British in the American Colonies beginning in 1776 with the American Declaration of Independence. |
| France | A nation-state in Europe that was ruled by a monarch until the French Revolution. |
| Prussia | a very militaristic nation-state in Europe in part of the area where Germany is today |
| Louisiana purchase | A purchase land made by the American Colonies in 1803 from the French empire. |
| Corsica | Became one of the 27 regions of France in 1769. The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. |
| The Communist Manifesto | Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848. It inspired citizens across the world to partake in revolutions against seemingly unjust behavior.It lays the foundation for Marxist thinking, teaching that class struggles are the origin of all progress in society. |
| Sun Yixian | Also known as Sun Yat-sen, he was the leader of the Kuomintang or nationalist Party that overthrew the Qing Dynasty of China. He also became the first leader of the former Republic of China. |
| Divine Right of Kings | European doctrine that held that the authority of kings came from God. |
| Virginia Declaration of Rights | A declaration of rights made by the representatives of the people of Virginia on June 7, 1776 written by George Mason.This later influenced the writting of the Declaration of Independance. |
| Guy Fawkes | A conspirator against the English throne who belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. |
| Utilitarianism | Previously proposed by Jeremy Bentham and advocated by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), states that government should do whatever may be necessary to maximize overall “utility”, or the benefits without the costs |
| John Stuart Mill | (1806-1873) British philosopher and last of the English classical economists; proponent of utilitarianism and also advocated the development of labor unions and farm cooperatives, as well as emancipation by women |
| Nationalism | Political ideology of loyalty to one’s nation as the utmost importance that started around the same time as Romanticism |
| Realpolitik | Concept invented by Otto von Bismarck that emphasized practical politics rather than philosophy |
| Laissez-faire | Approach in economics in which transactions between private parties are free from state and government intervention |
| Handel | George Frederick Handel was a German composer, resident in England, and noted particularly for his oratorios, including the Messiah |
| Haydn | 1732--1809, Austrian composer who played a major part in establishing the classical forms of the symphony and the string quartet. |
| Mozart | 1756--91, Austrian composer. A child prodigy and prolific genius, his works include operas, such as The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and The Magic Flute (1791), symphonies, concertos for piano, violin, clarinet, and French horn, string quartets and quintets, sonatas, songs, and Masses, such as the unfinished Requiem (1791). |
| Beethoven | 1770--1827, German composer, who greatly extended the form and scope of symphonic and chamber music, bridging the classical and romantic traditions. His works include nine symphonies, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, five piano concertos, a violin concerto, two masses, the opera Fidelio (1805), and choral music. |
| Nazi | a member of the National Socialist German Workers' party of Germany, which in 1933, under Adolf Hitler, seized political control of the country, suppressing all opposition and establishing a dictatorship over all cultural, economic, and political activities of the people, and promulgated belief in the supremacy of Hitler as Führer, aggressive anti-Semitism, the natural supremacy of the German people, and the establishment of Germany by superior force as a dominant world power. The party was officially abolished in 1945 at the conclusion of World War II. |
| Gregor Mendel | Father of Modern Genetics. As an Augustinian monk, Mendel studied Pea inheritance and interpreted his results to shape genetics till this day with his laws of Segregation and Independent assortment. |
| Sigmund Freud | Father of Modern Psychiatry. Arguably a pseudoscientist, with heavy focus on Ego and Eros. Famous for invention of the "Oedipus Complex" which is arguably a reflection of his troubled personal life. |
| Classical Economics | Mostly 19th century economics but also including 18th century Adam Smith, arguing for less government restriction on society. |
| Charles Spurgeon | Charles Spurgeon was a Minister in England who taught that faith without works is dead and that people should try to help the poor. |
| Franco-Prussian War | Otto von Bismarck started the Franco-Prussian War. He had an idea that if he enticed the French to attack Prussia that the German tribes around him would band together to defeat the opposition. The War lasted only six weeks. |
| Thomas Malthus | Thomas Malthus was a British economist. He believed that the economy was inevitable going to collapse and fail. |
| Giuseppe Mazzini | In Italy, a prominent nationalist, Giuseppe Mazzini, began to argue strongly for the unification of Italy as one nation. He formed the “Brotherhood of Young Italy” in 1831. |
| Belgium King Leopold II | Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians. He is chiefly remembered for being the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free state. |
| Manfred von Richtofen | Better known as the "Red Baron" was (and still is) the most well known, and possibly the most admired dogfighting ace of all time.
At the end of his life, he had an impressive 80 kills. He was shot down, by an unknown person on April 21,1918. |
| Triple Alliance | Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy; formed in 1879 to protect from French attacks; later became the Central Powers after Italy left and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined |
| Triple Entente | Great Britain, Russia, France; formed in 1907 against the Triple Alliance; later became the Allied Powers after Italy and Japan joined |
| Treaty of Versailles | 1919 Imposed limits on the size of the German army and its use of weapons and required Germany to pay reparations of $33 billion over a 30-year period; also took away some of its colonies and territories |
| Vladimir Ilyich Lenin | 1870-1924 Leader of the Communist Party who overthrew the Russian government; became leader of the Bolsheviks and ruled the Soviet Union, imposing a system of Marxism-Leninism which remained until the 1990s; also arranged for peace with Germany to end Russia's support of the Allies in the war in 1918 |
| Bolsheviks | After 1903, the more extreme Marxist group, as opposed to the Mensheviks, who wanted a sooner violent revolution; led by Lenin |
| quantum mechanics | this breakthrough in physics in the early 20th century, used today by electronic technology: there is an underlying uncertainty in subatomic particles, such that they have probabilities of being in different places at the same time until they are observed |
| First Battle of Marne | From September 6-12, 1914, the First Battle of Marne was a key conflict which halted the German efforts to capture France. This forced the Germans to fight a two front war. The French losses were horrific, 250,000. The German losses were similar. |
| Gallipoli Campaign | Allied forces landed on the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli in April 1915. The allies were not prepared for the terrain or there opponent. Nine months after the landing the allies had to retreat. They suffered 46,000 deaths among 250,000 casualties. |
| Battle of Verdun | The French and the Germans fought perhaps one of the most demanding battles in history at the Battle of Verdun. The Germans initiated the battle by attacking the French city of Verdun. The battle lasted for ten months and at least 220,000 soldiers died and 480,000 were wounded in this struggle. |
| Battle of the Somme | This battle started with the British and French meeting a the Somme River to begin an attack on the Germans to distract them from Verdun. The Allies bombed the Germans lines then sent 200,000 troops to storm them. The Germans were prepared for the attack and the losses were great. The British lost 20,000 men and had 40,000 wounded. The British and the French lost nearly 750,000 men. |
| Third Battle of Ypres | The British hid 19 huge land mines under the German lines in southeast Ypres, Belgium over a 18 month period. The British detonated the mines and charged the lines in July 1917. The British plan worked for the beginning stages but soon failed because they did not pursue the Germans quick enough. Soon it rained the wettest fall season in years and the allies were literally stuck in the mud. |
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| Zulus | A tribe of the Mthethwa African kingdoms of the late 1800's, and their most famous leader was Shaka. They were wiped out by the British in 1879. |